“Minecraft” is a sandbox for basically anyone to explore and experience. You can do whatever you want within the game’s limitations. Despite this, it does have an end goal: defeat the Ender Dragon in the End dimension. The steps to get there have not drastically changed in about eight years.

These steps have become borderline boring with what’s been added more and more recently.

To get to the End, for the uninitiated, one must first make a Nether portal, made of obsidian, which is only obtainable with diamond, the rarest ore in your dimension, gear, then find a Nether Fortress, which is a rare find. Then, you must find and kill blazes to get blaze rods and get Ender pearls one way or another to make Eyes of Ender to find the stronghold housing the End portal, where you then activate said portal to fight the Ender Dragon in the End.

As convoluted as it sounds, in the end (no pun intended), it’s all very … mundane. With new updates, there are underground cities with actual horror elements, upcoming dungeons with unique monsters, and buried ancient trails to excavate. The End progression in comparison looks boring and mundane.

Not only that, but there’s no real point to continue playing after you beat the dragon besides maybe trying for the Wither. For most other games, this is the ideal outcome; once you finish the game, you’re… finished with the game. But after you beat the dragon in “Minecraft,” a lot of people consider you in the middle of the game. For all that work, you don’t even really get a whole lot; just some fancy building blocks and a pair of gliding wings.

All that to say… what? 

Well, the progression to the big boss should be a little more rewarding as you progress. Maybe the monsters you see regularly could get harder in different areas or over time (like in the Zelda series), making the progression feel genuinely challenging whether or not you’re even trying to get to the boss. Maybe getting Eyes of Ender gets harder in some way, like making Ender pearls only available through Endermen themselves. 

In any case, the progression needs to be edited in some way — not necessarily what I suggested, but in some way — to be more satisfying and less of a snooze. I love “Minecraft” with all my heart and wish to see it become something actually fun to play over.